It has been awhile friends!

Hopefully you’ve followed along on our adventures via Facebook or Instagram. A lot has happened since I last checked in while we were in Colorado!

We made it across the Great Plains. Wheew. I wasn’t so sure about that.

Pushed on up through Minnesota and are now working our way across the U.P. of Michigan. We’ve been on the road for two months, our longest stint yet.

Camping in Copper Harbor, MI

As I sit here in the dark Airstream it is 5:30 a.m. and for some reason the endless patter of the rain no longer feels soothing so I decided to get up. Really I feel blessed by this. I’ve found it hard to find time to write or really do much of anything for myself that requires a quiet space. Tiny living with 5 humans does that to you. If anyone has the secret bullet to becoming a morning person, let me know!

I was asked by a friend what the best part and the worst part of traveling has been. And after giving the short answer, I’ve mulled the real ones over and over in my head these last few weeks.

The Worst

When I was first asked this, we’d just come off 3 weeks in the desert southwest and so the first thought that came to mind was “the dirt!” Now of course that has changed to “the rain and wet!” But those are really just superficial answers, right?

I could say the kidney stones, hail damage, water damage on our house back home (all fixed now) or work stress (yes, it still exists.) But those are all merely circumstantial. Hard stuff does happen on the road too.

The hardest part of travel is, on many days, also one of the best parts:

Life gets real on the road.

Isn’t that why we love to travel? To shake us from the mundane and habitual life that makes up most of our time? To help us see the world with fresh eyes and renewed vigor?

That is certainly one of the reasons I travel.

But in the same way it makes life more “real and alive” in a good sense, it also makes it REAL in a hard sense. When someone starts throwing up, it is a whole family affair. When someone is mad, it is a whole family affair. There is just no where to escape, which leads me to the next point.

Much of this is due to tiny living. 5 people in less than 200 sq. ft. gets real fast. You cannot escape the bad days and often emotions reflect and rebound off the curved walls of the Airstream at such a velocity, I simply cannot keep up! Add a tween with newly buddy emotions and… enough said.

A quick cooking lesson in the Airstream.

Secondly, the same way the crisp air of the mountains or the sound of camping next to a stream can make you feel alive, so can 50 mph winds, 100% humidity and endless rain. We spend so much time outside, that the weather effects us emotionally so much faster than it does when we are in our atmosphere controlled houses, schools and workplaces.

Again, some days this is wonderful and other days… it is just hard.

The Best

This one is even harder to answer! The bad always comes to mind so easily, doesn’t friends? But there is SO MUCH GOOD also.

Like the fact that we get to rollup and park our home on some of the most sought after real estate in the country. We can be living in a mountain town one week, in the laps of Zion National Park the next, or have waterfront property on Lake Superior the next!

Lone Rock, Lake Powell

This has the added bonus that much of our recreating is so accessible. We step out our front door and either grab the paddle board and walk to the lake or get on the bike and hit world-class mountain biking trails, without losing a minute of our day commuting to them.

We have so much more time when we are traveling. Less running around town, WAY less cleaning, and so much more time for doing the things that are important. This is the one thing I wish I could bottle up, share with you all and take back with me when are at home.

What is also the best?

I’ve become deeply convinced of one thing in my parenting journey, and it is this:

Nothing will influence our kids more then having real and meaningful relationships with their parents. Studies even suggest that more than friends, community, sports, or school, a good relationship between parent and child is the number one factor in a person’s life. 

Now you do not have to travel to achieve this. No.

But I am super thankful that traveling has shoved us into a tiny space so we can’t escape each other and we have more time available so we aren’t as distracted by all the other things.

Paddleboarding, outside Duluth, MN

See our culture tells us that relationships get better if you just give them some space, but I also think that is B.S. Maybe momentary space, but no. Real relationship comes from diving in, getting dirty, working out the kinks, sharing your life.

And so I am deeply thankful for the time I get with my kids, on the road, getting dirty, sweaty, sometimes tearful but many other times, happy. 🙂